Tag Archives: organic

I am a firm believer that “to grow your own food is to print your own money.” Imagine the amount of money that would immediately open up to you if your grocery budget was significantly decreased! Thanks to the Urban Gardening movement, it is now completely possible to grow your own food, even in small spaces.

I’ve been combing through Amazon, putting together my wish list of urban gardening supplies. We are renting, so even though we have a small front yard (no back yard), I doubt my landlord would be too thrilled if I tore up the grass to plant a garden. Some precious friends with a huge farm have graciously offered to let us use a portion of their land for a garden, and I am equal parts humbled and thrilled, which is a very difficult mix of emotions to convey through words. Picture me jumping up and down squealing but also flabbergasted, and that would probably be pretty accurate.

I know many people are in the same sort of renting living situation, so I wanted to share this list and show you how possible it is to have a garden in small spaces, or without the whole plowing and tilling process. Here are some great products that will help you create the urban farm of your dreams:

These are created with small spaces in mind. It comes in two sizes, the 35-gallon (pictured) and the 16-gallon. They sit on the ground and spin easily. Every garden should have at least two (since you need one to fill while the other one “brews” for 6 weeks or so). These guys are even BPA-free! I think they look like snails.

I can’t say enough about these powerhouse growing systems. They are aeroponic growing systems, self-watering, and grow tons of food in 5 weeks or less. No weeding. It’s planting and harvesting, and that’s about it. You can purchase one at a time or a family pack in sets of 3. These can even be brought inside and continue your harvest year-round! To grow in here: lettuce, kale, spinach, tomatoes, eggplant, zucchini, cucumber, strawberries, and possibly a melon or two.

Sometimes, you just need dirt. These pots are made of a sturdy fabric to allow for better drainage and easier air flow to the roots. To grow in these: sweet potatoes (check out this post on growing sweet potatoes in buckets), beets, garlic, and raspberries.

Other items on my wish list for our garden:

Urban apple trees (they are a hybrid that can stay planted in pots!)

Kitchen compost bin.This particular bin is great for under the counter storage. I used to have a countertop storage system and even though I kept up with it, it had an odor. With this, I can lock the container closed and keep it under a cabinet. Less odor = happier family.

March is National Nutrition Month, and I’m excited to participate with a few fun product reviews!

Bundle Organics was founded in 2013 with a great concept: organic juice combinations conveniently packaged for quick consumption. What sets them apart is that the juices are pasteurized. For pregnant women, the unfortunate threat of listeria can keep some women from eating as many fruits and vegetables as they should, so Bundle Organics takes away that concern. They also fortify the juices with extra nutrients for baby like folic acid, iron, and vitamin E.

I love that they don’t add any artificial dyes to the juices. I think the colors are beautiful because I happen to love food in its unadulterated form, but others might not find the color particularly appetizing. If that’s you, drink it straight from the bottle.

I also appreciated the no added sugar. I don’t really like for Tristan to have a lot of sugar, and I’ve diluted juice for him in the past. He couldn’t get enough of these juices and I finally had to give him the empty bottle to play with after he had his share.

There are 3 varieties of juice blends so far: berries, green, and orange. All three contain ginger and lemon, which is as good for the immune system as it is for pregnancy nausea. The berries blend contains a variety of the beautiful dark berries, spinach, and kale. The green blend is primarily kale and apple, and the orange features oranges and carrots.

Bundle Organics also launched a line of doctor approved herbal teas for pregnant and nursing moms on Kickstarter earlier this year. I’m going to anxiously await the Rooibos/Orange/Cardamom/Mango tea! I’m not pregnant, it just sounds delicious!

Pros:

All juices (and teas!) are organic

Lots of fruits and veggies in each bottle

Easy to consume – shake and drink!

Cons:

Delicate enzymes of raw fruits and vegetables are denatured in the pasteurization process. However, they are still packed with good nutrients, and I understand why they would need to be pasteurized since they are a consumable product that ships to people. Raw juice wouldn’t be so fresh-tasting.

I’m not usually a fan of fortified things. I think most nutrition can and should be found through food alone and not synthetic additives. For example, someone with the MTHFR gene can’t properly use folic acid and need the folate version. Perhaps if they were to change their fortification to the more natural folate rather than folic acid, their audience would be larger.

They are a bit on the pricey side. However, they are all organic ingredients, and it’s definitely cheaper than making a bottle of juice that size from scratch on your own.

All in all, I’m actually very impressed with this company and these products, and I will probably be purchasing some in the future, especially for any future pregnancies.

If you want to purchase Bundle Organics juices, you can also purchase them online through Target (if you live near a Target, choose the “ship to store” option so you don’t have to pay shipping).

The biggest argument I hear to healthy eating (that honestly, I’ve given myself) is “it’s too expensive!” So today I wanted to show you how you can actually eat organic food for free.

Yes, free.

When we first got married, I brought my amazon prime account into our marriage. Which was super awesome because not only did we get free shipping on basically anything, but we had access to the Prime movies – yay free entertainment! Right after we got married, Amazon introduced the most awesome thing EVER – Amazon Pantry.

The general idea is you order however much of whatever pantry-ish item you want for a flat shipping fee of $5.99. Oh, and they give you a running total of how big your box is (and they can get pretty big). One time Peter did a one hour phone survey about going to college and earned a $50 amazon gift card, and so we headed right on over to Amazon Pantry and ordered a HUGE order of food and toilet paper. I think we paid $0.28 in total out of pocket.

This was so awesome we wanted to take advantage of this goodness again, so I started earning Swagbucks and trading them in for amazon gift cards.

I’ve been diligently earning Swagbucks again recently, so I took a look at the Amazon pantry. They now have TONS of organic options! I saw everything from granola to broth to pasta. Obviously you can’t get your perishables there, but if you can earn Swagbucks, turn them into gift cards, and get all of your nonperishables organic, how much of your grocery budget would that free up to get the rest organic?

So, how do you earn Swagbucks?

Join for free! {Earn a $3 gift card when you sign up through this link!}

Install the Swagbucks search bar as your main search site. Anytime you search, you have the chance to earn Swagbucks!

Earn 40+ points every day just by adding the swagbucks tv app on your phone and letting it run for an hour or so while you do other things, answer the daily poll, complete the NOSO (just click “skip” the whole time till the end), and enter a swag code, which is usually sent daily.

Refer friends (you earn 10% of all of their earnings for life!)

Use the “shop and earn” feature. This is my favorite! Anytime you order anything online, check Swagbucks first to see if they have a partnership. Chances are they do, so you first log in to your swagbucks account, click “shop and earn,” then click the store you want to go to. This creates a unique code that tracks how much you actually spend, and you earn so many Swagbucks per $1 spent! Right now Amazon is giving 5 SB/$1. Christmas shopping = FREE GIFT CARDS! They also have partnerships with Walmart, Target, Vitacost, and even Groupon and Living Social!

One of my goals for 2016 was originally to pay for all of Christmas just with Swagbucks gift cards. However, now that I see this I’m thinking of all the organic things I can purchase for free that I can use to benefit my family’s health.

Swagbucks are a great way to earn a little extra spending money, especially when on a tight budget. I hope this will encourage you that with a little ingenuity, organic healthy living IS possible!